Middle-aged churchman John Gadsby revives his sleepy, isolated community with the help of its young residents, and soon becomes its Mayor in the process.
This novel of 50,000+ words, written during 1936 and 1937, is famous for lacking the English letter "e" in its manuscript.
Prior to writing it, author Ernest Vincent Wright (March 26, 1871-October 7, 1939) also penned three books of poetry:
The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun (1896),
The Fairies That Run the World and How They Do It (1903), and
Thoughts and Reveries of an American Bluejacket (1918). His first credited work, "When Father Carves the Duck",
first appeared in an 1891 issue of the Boston Evening Transcript and has appeared in numerous anthologies over the years since.
Wright also served as a member of the U.S. Navy during the First World War, and played piccolo and flute during his tenure. A native of Boston (as well as an
M.I.T. student), he also lived in Florida and California during his later years.
For more information on Wright's career (and a similar work,
La disparition/
A Void by Georges Perec), order the Special Edition of this work at Amazon's Kindle Store (available in the
U.S. and
UK) and read Reginald Routhwick's behind-the-scenes essay,
Skipping Fifth.
From the collections of
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania:
tripod.brynmawr.edu/find/Record/.b2621659
Scanned by Reginald Routhwick at the
Silas Bronson Library, Waterbury, CT, during January 14-22, 2013, and edited at home until January 28. Software/equipment used:
BookScan Station (raw scans) and
GIMP 2.6 (image editing).
Posted on Internet Archive: February 2, 2013 @ 1:38 p.m. EST With All Due Respect,
This Upload Is
Hereby Dedicated
To Aaron Swartz
(1986-2013)